In my coaching practice I often get clients, who want to change jobs. The reasons are usually the same: losing interest in the current job; new boss is incompetent or dysfunctional; company is not growing; and, finally, I want more money or a promotion! Yet, when I look at their proximate work assignments, activities, their chronology, and their most recent performance reviews I realize that they have been stagnating in their jobs much too long. This makes it difficult to transition to give your career that bounce!
Why is that?
As in any exchange employers are looking for someone who brings a strong value proposition to them, both from a track-record view and prospectively. A typical example of a strong value proposition is that you just did a stellar job at getting a new breakthrough product out as a competitor. Other examples are hiring top talent to manage your new group, coming up with a new idea for a breakthrough product, and identifying new initiatives to improve an existing process. In many cases it is difficult for employees to keep coming with a stream of new ideas that add immediate value to their employer and that will keep their employer ahead of the pack.
For a variety or reasons, which may include environmental conditions, such as bad economy, company’s cutbacks; and on the personal front, the person’s shifted priorities people lose their career mojo. All of these factors redound in one’s losing their career momentum and may even cause them to slip into a career coma! So, when you need to make a transition most, you are in a position of disadvantage, often due to your own doing (or not doing!). What is happening to you and to your job in the most recent period can be called your career momentum. Since one’s career is a course or progress through their history, career momentum deals with how you have evolved in your current job, where you are headed with it, and what you aspire to do.
So, how does one manage their career momentum and keep their mojo in a marketable stead? Well, here are some suggestions:
1. If your job is merely taking orders from above, shift your mode to initiating something new that will become visible to the higher-ups because of the impact of that change. Also, make sure that when you make this change you first predict the outcome beforehand, and, after completing the initiative that you let important people know what you did. Otherwise, some politically savvy person will hijack that to their credit. This suggestion applies to everyone from an individual contributor to the CEO.
2. If you have stayed at the same rating in your performance review for the past three years it means that you have ceased to grow. Even if you have received a string of the coveted 5/5 in your rating it means that you have become stagnant and risk-averse. This also means that you are losing your edge and have become less and less marketable as time advances.
3. If you have stayed in a job with the same title and responsibilities for three years you have begun losing your career momentum. Even if your responsibilities increase for the same title you may be growing somewhat, but your résumé may not be able to reflect that adequately when you start marketing yourself. So, keep looking for greater responsibilities that go with commensurate titles. If a formal title change is not possible, at least change your title to something more imposing on your business card.
4. If you are in the Silicon Valley, do not stay at one company for more than 6-7 years, in the same job title for more that about three, and in the same industry for more than 10. If you are in the US, but outside the Valley the numbers change to 12, five, and 15 respectively. Of course, these numbers are not cast in concrete, but recent examples of how my own clients were able to (and were unable to) make a transition suggest these boundaries. For example, one Silicon-Valley client, who was in a consulting company for 10 years was recently told by his hiring manager that he would be getting a job offer from the company that interested him—I had cautioned him that if he stayed in consulting for more that 10 years he may find it hard to get back into the clients-side of his business, the corporate world—but was stopped cold by an SVP, who thought that he was too risk averse for staying in one place for more that seven years. We changed our approach and pursued a contract position in a large company as a transitional strategy, which worked for him.
5. There are several ways of building your career momentum: Becoming more visible in your professional groups by joining and actively participating in their proceedings. Another way is to become known by writing blogs about the area that interests you.
6. LinkedIn has become a potent source of showcasing your ongoing progress in your area of expertise and interest. By constantly keeping your Profile updated, adding new connections in areas outside your comfort zone, and getting Recommendations from people that matter (not from your friends and relatives!) can significantly add to your career momentum. This is also an active way of creating your brand, and a passive way of marketing yourself. With this approach you’re not shopping around with your résumé to market yourself, which can also ding your career momentum.
7. If you need experience in an area where you lack the background to claim a position, try volunteering at high-visibility events and claim a spot that gives you the exposure you need. Treat this experience as if this were a job you did to put on your résumé.
8. Shift your mindset from becoming an expert to becoming a problem solver. This is especially true if you are moving from a consulting space to a specific industry. Although consulting companies demand subject matter expertise, industries are increasingly looking for savvy problem-solvers more than they are, for experts, because the technology is changing at such a rapid pace. Make sure that you focus your résumé appropriately (Problem Solver Vs. Subject Matter Expert) when making a career transition.
9. Start a personal development plan to master the areas that you have ignored before. Such areas include improving your Emotional Intelligence, better communication, effective presentations, project management, and developing business skills.
10. Identify your limiting beliefs and learn how to conquer them. I find that in many transitions my clients’ limiting beliefs are more a factor in their setbacks than any outside factors that they cannot control.
Good luck!